Indonesian militant denies making Bali bombs

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) – An Indonesian militant is now insisting that he did not assemble the car bomb used in the 2002 Bali nightclub blasts.

Umar Patek, a leading member of the al-Qaida-linked network Jemaah Islamiyah, told a court Thursday that he did not have the expertise to build an explosive as big and deadly as the bomb placed in a van outside two throbbing clubs.

Despite the denial, Patek earlier gave investigators a highly detailed description of how he painstakingly helped build the bomb over a six-day period.

Patek faces a maximum penalty of death if he is found guilty of various terror-related and criminal charges, including the Bali attacks that left 202 people dead. Most of the victims were foreigners.

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